Cape Otway's Cretaceous Christmas Present!

Christmas Eve delivered an unexpected surprise to Australian palaeontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts alike, with the revelation that researchers have uncovered the partial skeleton of a plant-eating ornithopod at Cape Otway, Victoria.

The discovery, which was first made in 2005, but was only formally announced on 24 December 2007, marks the first dinosaur skeleton to have been unearthed in nearly two decades. Previous fossil discoveries, such as those made at the nearby 'Dinosaur Cove' site, have largely consisted of bones and teeth.

According to Doctor Thomas Rich, vertebrate palaeontologist with Museum Victoria, the skeleton (estimated to be over 100 million years old) may have been intact as 'recently' as 500 years ago, when its head, along with much of its body, could have been washed away.

Full details of the discovery can be read here.

Desalinated Dinosaurs?

The Victorian State Government's plans to build a water desalination plant near Wonthaggi hit an unexpected obstacle when it was revealed that a significant deposit of prehistoric fossils was located in the plant's proposed construction site.

The fossils, dating back 115 million years, had been discovered by palaeontologists at the Powlett River site in Kilcunda, Victoria, in 1994. However, their exact location had been kept a secret, until researchers realised that the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) may not have been aware of the fossil site's existence. Dr. Thomas Rich, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Melbourne Museum (who is profiled on page 58 of Prehistoric Australia), wrote to the DSE to alert them of the site's presence.

Remains of ornithopods and plesiosaurs, along with polar lungfish, are amongst the fossils to have been uncovered at the site.

The Victorian State Government is yet to decide whether it will conduct an environmental effects study to gauge the potential impact that the proposed desalination plant will have on the fossil site. However, Water Minister Tim Holding has been reported in the media as saying that the plant's inflow and outflow pipes would be laid well below the surface of the excavation site.

You can listen to an online recording of an ABC World Today interview with Dr Tom Rich, Water Minister Tim Holding and the Victorian state opposition water spokeswoman, Louise Asher, which was aired on Tuesday 27 November 2007.

Image of polar lungfish courtesy of Australian Dinosaur Story, Australian Heritage Directory.

Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered in Victoria

Palaeontologists from America and Australia have uncovered three separate sets of dinosaur tracks at a site near the town of Inverloch in Victoria, Australia - making them the first of their kind to be discovered in Victoria.

Reporting the findings at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Austin, Texas on 19 October 2007, Dr. Anthony Martin, senior researcher at Emroy University (USA), said that the tracks were approximately 14 inches long and were most likely made by large carnivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period - 115 million years ago!

Dr. Martin discovered two of the tracks during a visit to the Inverloch site in February 2006, with the third track located by Monash University undergraduate volunteer, Tyler Lamb, in February 2007.

Dr. Martin collaborated with noted Australian palaeontologists Dr. Thomas Rich (Museum of Victoria), Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich (Monash University) and Lesley Kool (Monash University) in classifying the tracks. (Image reproduced from Science Daily)